TY - JOUR
T1 - YscP of <em>Yersinia pestis</em> Is a Secreted Component of the Yop Secretion System
JF - Journal of Bacteriology
JO - J. Bacteriol.
SP - 2852
LP - 2862
VL - 181
IS - 9
AU - Payne, Patricia L.
AU - Straley, Susan C.
Y1 - 1999/05/01
UR - http://jb.asm.org/content/181/9/2852.abstract
N2 - The Yersinia pestis low-Ca2+ response stimulon is responsible for the environmentally regulated expression and secretion of antihost proteins (V antigen and Yops). We have previously shown that yscO encodes a secreted core component of the Yop secretion (Ysc) mechanism. In this study, we constructed and characterized in-frame deletions in the adjacent gene,yscP, in the yscN–yscU operon. The ΔP1 mutation, which removed amino acids 246 to 333 of YscP, had no effect on Yop expression or secretion, and the mutant protein, YscP1, was secreted, as was YscP in the parent. In contrast, the ΔP2 strain expressed and secreted less of each Yop than did the parent under the inductive conditions of 37°C and the absence of Ca2+, with an exception being YopE, which was only minimally affected by the mutation. The YscP2 protein, missing amino acids 57 to 324 of YscP, was expressed but not secreted by the ΔP2 mutant. The effect of the ΔP2 mutation was at the level of Yop secretion because YopM and V antigen still showed limited secretion when overproduced in trans. Excess YscP also affected secretion: overexpression of YscP in the parent, in either yscP mutant, or in an lcrGmutant effectively shut off secretion. However, co-overexpression of YscO and YscP had no effect on secretion, and YscP overexpression in anlcrE mutant had little effect on Yop secretion, suggesting that YscP acts, in conjunction with YscO, at the level of secretion control of LcrE at the bacterial surface. These findings place YscP among the growing family of mobile Ysc components that both affect secretion and themselves are secreted by the Ysc.
ER -